Extremist Literature Found in British Prisons

A recent Prison Service Inspection Team in the UK have discovered the presence of a significant amount of extremist literature found in British Prisons with 9 of 11 prisons from Wales and England having copies of books deemed to be extremist in nature held within their Chaplaincies.

Now the government has issued an order for the removal of these pieces of literature seven months after the findings were reported to the relevant authorities by the Acheson led inspection team which completed their inquiries in November of 2015.

The order demanding staff remove the extremist literature was sent in an email to all relevant prisons around the 20th June with Acheson stating that the books contained “sometimes sectarian, homophobic and incendiary information that was freely available to vulnerable prisoners in many prisons with no obvious control over it”.

In a testimony to the Commons Justice Committee on 13 July, Acheson states that his investigation had discovered “numerous examples” of books that were “extremist in nature in prison chaplaincies” and that he felt that the delay in removing the items constituted a security risk.
Talking to the BBC he said “I made it clear to the Ministry of Justice last November that… my assumption was that urgent action will be taken to remove these materials”,adding that “Their free access to vulnerable and suggestible prisoners is an obvious security risk,”. He added that he was surprised to learn that the removal of the books had taken so long.

The BBC has quoted the ministry as stating “We will not tolerate extremist literature in our prisons and have taken action to remove them all from the prison estate,”